Black Sherif: The Next Big Thing In Afrobeats?
Who Is Black Sherif The Traveler?
Black Sherif the Ghanaian musician and performer who real name is Mohammed Ismail Sherif Kwaku Frimpong.
Where Is He From?
Mohammed Ismail Fimpong aka Black Sherif was born and raised in the gold mining town of Konongo in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
When Did He Start Making Music?
Since 2019 the 20 year old drill rapper has been putting out music and climbing the Afrobeat Charts.
In 2022 Black Sherif became the first Ghanaian artist to reach Nigeria Apple Music Top 10 Chart with 3 singles simultaneously charting at once:
- “Always” his hit with Nigerian-UK rapper Darkoo peaked at number 1 on the Nigerian Apple Music Top 10 Chart.
- “Second Sermon Remix” featuring Burna Boy peaked at the 2 spot on the Apple music chart of the African country with the largest population.
- “Kwaku The Traveller” is Black Sherif biggest hit so far, reaching the number 1 spot on the Nigeria Apple Music Top Ten Chart. Making him the first Ghanaian artist to reach this spot without a Nigerian artist featured on the record.
Black Sherif International Appeal
Black Sherif approach to making afro-drill music is the reason he is a standout compared to his peers. His style rely heavy on infectious hooks/chorus, great production and relatable, youthful but melodic lyrics, making his catchy music perfect for this era’s of Tiktok stitch songs.
Along the main highway in Nigeria, electronic billboards displayed Black Sherif and Burna Boy names promoting their Second Sermon Remix two weeks after its release. A rare full-fledged marketing effort for a Ghanaian artist trying to pierce the continent’s largest afrobeats market.
In April Kwaku The Traveler became the most Shazam song in the world. With the song being Shazam over fiver hundred thousand times, making Kwaku The Traveler one of the biggest songs in Africa while reaching the number 5 spot on the U.S. Afrobeats Billboard Charts.
After winning 4 out of 5 nominations at the 3Music Awards in Accra and delivering an emotional, gospel-rain-performance rendition of his international hit song, Black Sherif’s Kwaku The Traveler has been garnering more attention.
Why is Black Sharif Impact a Big Deal?
The afro-drill rapper impact is impressive because there is a belief Nigerian musicians and music fans do not support popular Ghanaian artist.
Even with notable artist like Sarkodie, Shata Wale, Stonebwoy having multiple years of presence in the afrobeat scene, they still like a significant fan base in Naija.
This particular conversation has been the topic of discussion as of late because of Shatta Wale’s comments at his Freedom Concert late last year.
“Do know that majority of people in the Ghana music industry are fools? They told me that I won’t be able to fill my stadium. I don’t look up to any stupid Nigerian artist I look up to my fans. F*ck Nigeria” – Shatta Wale
Link to video here
Even Nigerian legend Flavour backed up Shatta Wale statements by saying
“Numbers show us something. How can Diamond (Diamond Platnumz) have a song with over 30 million views in a month and the song isn’t played as much as it’s supposed to be here in Nigeria? That shows you that something is wrong and then a song with 600,000 views is being played like Michael Jackson just resurrected.” – Flavour
In the midst of the national animosity between Ghana and Nigeria, Black Sherif music is putting to end old narrative like Ghanaian artist ability to crossover globally or Nigeria not supporting Ghanaian musician.
Only thing left is to settle the Nigerian and Ghanaian Jollof Rice Wars.
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